Massachusetts Health Boards Overwhelmed, Unready to Protect Workers By Shannon Iriarte, Shwetha Surendran and Maggie Mulvihill | May 14, 2021 With federal regulators missing from the field and state leaders scrambling to manage the COVID-19 crisis, Massachusetts’ 351 overtaxed local boards of health were unwittingly thrust into a new role last year – overseers of workplace safety. The challenge created by forcing that responsibility on the municipal agencies, some staffed with only one or two people, may have contributed to at least one chairman’s heart attack and highlighted the fragility of the workplace-safety landscape in Massachusetts. “It’s brutal. It’s brutal. It’s off the charts,” said Michael R. Hugo, government affairs director for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. “There is so much egregious behavior going on by businesses that nobody has time to do it all.”